Brussels - EU Condemns Israel Over Settlements

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitrios Avramopoulos (front L) and European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Czech Stefan Fule (R) during a foreign affairs council at the EU headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, 10 December 2012. EPA

Brussels - The European Union expressed dismay on Monday over Israel’s plans to build settlements in a highly sensitive part of the West Bank, but spelled out no punitive measures in response.

After meeting in Brussels, foreign ministers of the 27 EU states said the Israeli plan would seriously undermine the prospects of successful peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The EU is deeply dismayed by and strongly opposes Israeli plans to expand settlements,” they said in a statement. “The EU will closely monitor the situation and its broader implications, and act accordingly.”

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The statement made no mention of what European governments could do to pressure Israel over the settlements, and diplomats said no concrete plans for sanctions were brought up during the discussions.

Deep divisions over how to tackle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict mean sanctions or other concrete steps by EU states appear unlikely for now.

The EU ministers also criticized recent statements by a leader from the Islamist movement Hamas questioning Israel’s right to exist.

On Saturday, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal told a mass rally in Gaza that he would never recognize Israel and pledged to “free the land of Palestine inch by inch”.

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Dec 10, 2012 at 03:44 PMLiepa Says:

The EU is as much a party to arab terror as the arabs themselves. Due to exploding moslem populations across most EU countries their respective governments are beholden to their moslem citizens. Even if they tried to be fair to Israel, which they never would, their moslem constituents would turn Piccadily Circus or/and Champs D'elysse etc. into a Tharir Square!

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Dec 11, 2012 at 08:06 AMThe-Macher Says:

I am not a Zionist by any means, and I believe Reb Yoilish's predictions will come true. However, the EU, members of which created and manned "Jewish settlements" called Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, Chelmno, Dachau, Majdanek, Sobibor, and Terezin (among others), have no right to tell any Jew where to build. Many EU facilities undoubtedly stand on confiscated Jewish land.